Decorative Arts & History

This hurling ball, also known as a sliotar, is constructed from the plaited body and tail hair of a horse. While its exact age is unknown, it is of the type made from the 15th to 19th centuries. The body hair would have been gathered for the centre using large brushes, then hair from the mane and tail was wound around itself to make the body of the ball. Sliotars could also be made from materials such as wood and rubber. The sliotar comes from Maulcallee, Sneem, Co. Kerry.  The soil has ensured sliotars’ preservation as objects of enormous historical and archaeological value. Nowadays, they are made of cork and thread with a leather covering. 

The camán, or hurling stick, is from the early 19th century and was made in Tuam. Co. Galway. As hurling was played throughout the country without codified rules, there were great variations in the form of the stick used. This 19th century camán, anglicised to commons, was a type named after the camán version of hurling that was played north of the Dublin-Galway railway line and particularly in Ulster’s communal heartlands. 

Hurling is one of the oldest sports in the world; one of its first references dates to 1272 BCE. The ancient status of hurling means that it often features in Irish myths, the most famous of which being the legendary tale Táin Bo Cuailgne. The story describes the exploits of the Ulster hero Cú Chullainn, or the Hound of Cullen, who was so named after killing a fierce guard dog by driving a hurling ball down its throat. 

The Celtic legal system, known as the Brehon Laws, provided compensation for hurling accidents. Provisions were made for cases of deliberate injury, or even death, during the game. Hurling was later outlawed under the Statutes of Kilkenny in 1366, which aimed to separate the English from the Irish in daily life, including banning intermarriage and use of the Irish language among the English. These laws were eventually reversed, so stories of hurling in Ireland can be found throughout the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.